Life in Japan

Black Van Experience

Sometimes some of the more right-wing members of the Japanese society feel the need to announce their beliefs to the public. They do this in a manner that is otherwise unlike Japanese society: they make lots of noise. The typical black van is equipped with loud speakers, the Japanese flag, Imperial seal and the military flag (a.k.a. the rising sun flag). They usually pick crowded area to blast their propaganda to the public. They also sometimes park in front of the Russian embassy.

The average Tokyoite will happily ignore the noise. I’ve never seen someone stop and listen to them. But this time, the black van people had a plan: They stopped in front of a smoking area. Isn’t it time to give up smoking after the black van experience?

Mia Jaap

Journalist, developer and passionate about Japanese and Korean language. Japan is my #1 country for travelling, penguins my favourite animals.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *